Company Now 3D Prints Custom Sea Life Tracking Devices

Our oceans are extremely vast. It is estimated that anywhere from 50-80% of all life on earth is found in them, and approximately 99% of the living space on the planet are within the oceans. There are so many creatures, as well as plant life, that have remained undiscovered, and so much that we do not yet understand about the natural habits of much of the world’s marine life. In fact, it is estimated that we have only identified approximately 10-15% of all the species that inhabit the oceans of the world.

This is why the tracking of such species are so very important. A company called Desert Star Systems, has utilized 3D printing to create their new Sea Tag animal tag technology. There are thousands of possible species that biologists have the potential of tagging in order to track the animals habits, and gather specific information on the animals in order to better understand their behaviors. Because of the immense number of different types of species, there are all different shapes and sizes of possible tags that could be produced. What Desert Star Systems has done is use 3D printers to customize their tagging system for specific species of sea life.

They have managed to use the latest technologies to design new tags, make adjustments on CAD software, and then quickly print out prototypes and molds using a variety of different 3D printing methods such as laser sintering, and fused deposition modeling. The results have been a state of the art tagging system which can go to further depths, last longer, and gather more information.

Prototyping with 3D printing has absolutely helped us discover unknown problems and subsequently fix them,”said Thomas Gray of Desert Star Systems. “It’s significantly less expensive to have 3D printed parts initially. It ultimately saves time, money, and re-work. With the ability to physically hold a prototype in your hand, you get a real world feel that no CAD software provides.

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